I’m 84 & single after my hubby, 39, vanished – it’s made me a love rat magnet & Facebook bait for scammers
SHE made herself a household name when she appeared on This Morning and told the nation about her saucy bedroom antics involving KY Jelly with younger lover Mohamed.
Iris Jones, who will turn 85 in September, met Mohamed, then mid-30s, on a Facebook group in mid-2019 and the pair hit it off.
She flew back and forth to Cairo, Egypt, and on her third visit shortly after ‘meeting’ married him.
But it wasn’t until a few years later, Mohamed was allowed to live with Iris in the UK, sharing her bungalow in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
For a time, the pair seemed deliriously happy.
However, their love was short-lived and they broke up last year and a bitter battle of words ensued with her calling him a “Prince of Darkness” and him claiming she used him as a “sex slave”.
I’m keeping [the current] scam going but I am getting bored and I’m frustrated. Why isn’t he showing his true colours and saying he’s stuck somewhere and needs cash?
Iris Jones
Now, for the first time, Iris says she no longer hates Mohamed – but she has a new problem.
She’s become a magnet for love rats intent on scheming cash out of her by pretending to be someone else – a practice known as ‘romance fraud’.
Thankfully, Iris is wise to it. “I’m pretty sassy,” she said, adding she didn’t believe for a second a host of handsome American Air Force men or Belgium artists were interested in her – a woman who in just 15 years will be 100.
But, rather than delete the profiles, she chats to them.
I’m pretty sassy
Iris Jones
“I’m keeping [the current] scam going but I am getting bored and I’m frustrated. Why isn’t he showing his true colours and saying he’s stuck somewhere and needs cash?” she asked of her current ‘beau’ ‘David’.
“I’m never going to be scammed again. I’ll be 85 in September but I’m no fool. My mind is in perfect order.
“I think I am a target at the moment because I’m onto my third scammer.”
Detailing her scammers, she said they always slide into her Facebook DMs before flattering her with compliments – a practice common in romance fraud and surprisingly and worryingly effective.
“The first one, ‘Adrian’, said he was an engineer working on an oil rig in Milan.”
But Iris quickly realised he was telling tall tales.
He would send me 16-line poems that were sickly sweet.
Iris Jone
“I sussed him out pretty quickly,” she said. “He would send me 16-line poems that were sickly sweet.
“I didn’t believe him from the start. My friend, Elaine, did a reverse image search and his picture is everywhere.
“He was very handsome but clearly not the man I was talking to. He had bad English so I gave him a fake address and a fake email.”
The second man, ‘Aleric’, from Belgium was an ‘artist’, Iris said. “He said he had an exhibition in a Far Eastern country.
What is 'romance fraud'?
It’s a scheme many people sadly fall victim to, but you don’t have to.
Action Fraud said: “Romance scams involve people being duped into sending money to criminals who go to great lengths to gain their trust and convince them that they are in a genuine relationship.
“They use language to manipulate, persuade and exploit so that requests for money do not raise alarm bells.
“These requests might be highly emotive, such as criminals claiming they need money for emergency medical care, or to pay for transport costs to visit the victim if they are overseas.
“Scammers will often build a relationship with their victims over time.”
“We chatted for weeks and he said he loved me and couldn’t wait to meet me and my family – like that was ever going to happen.
“He sent me pictures he said he had painted – but the joke was I knew they were painted by someone else, a man called Jack Vettriano.
“He was another handsome bloke. But I got fed up one day and said ‘I don’t believe an ‘effing work you’re saying’. That was the end of him. I never heard from him at all after that.”
Iris is currently chatting with a third man, ‘David’, who is American.
We chatted for weeks and he said he loved me and couldn’t wait to meet me and my family – like that was ever going to happen.
Iris Jones
“But he’s not as he says his favourite food is rice – what kind of American would say that?” she said. “They would say hamburgers, popcorn or hotdogs.
“He says he’s in the Air Force, based in Yemen, but doesn’t know any phrases related to it.”
And she said she was wise to love-bombing – when a potential suitor hounds you early on with compliments or attention – too.
“He marked 21 notifications on my picture of Mr Bojangles – that’s a bit much.”
She said she wanted other women to watch out for men who say things like “Hello honey” and “Don’t tell your family about me.”
But he’s not as he says his favourite food is rice – what kind of American would say that? They would say hamburgers, popcorn or hotdogs
Iris Jones
“These men must think I’m stupid,” she said. “I thought Mohamed was genuine but now I realise was just infatuated with him. How can you love someone you’ve never met.”
And she said for the first time there was no bad blood between her and Mohamed.
“I’ve moved on from Mohamed – I don’t hate him, I’m indifferent.”
